Page 32 - Mounted Oriental Porcelain, The Getty Museum

24. Lunsingh Scheurleer 1980, fig. 16. 43. See Daniel Alcouffe, "The Collection of Cardinal Maza-
25. For this and other references to early mounted porcelain rin's Gems," Burlington (September 1974), pp. 514-26.
in England, see Yvonne Hackenbroch, "Chinese Porcelain 44. Many of these enamels are in the Palace Museum, Taipei,
in European Silver Mounts," Connoisseur (June 1955), Taiwan, and are illustrated in Catalogue of Cloisonne
pp. 22-29. Enamels from the Palace Museum (Taipei, 1981).
26. Lunsingh Scheurleer 1980, fig. 6. 45. "6 assiettes de bois verny avec du cuivre emaile" given by
27. Another example is a bowl of Jiajing date (1522-66) Constantine Phaulkon to the king.
made for the Turkish market and acquired there by 46. For example, Angran, vicomte de Fonspertuis, sale, Paris,
Count Eberhardt von Manderscheidt in 1583. He had March 4, 1748, nos. 340-41, and Randon de Boisset
the bowl mounted as a chalice on a silver-gilt stem of sale, Paris, 1777, nos. 861-62. In the former sale the
German workmanship. The Victoria and Albert Museum expert Gersaint describes such objects as "cuivre emaille
recently acquired it (Anna Somers-Cocks, "Savoir acheter: aux Indes." At the beginning of the reign of the Yong-
Un exemple du Victoria & Albert," Connaissance des zheng emperor (r. 1723-35), the governor-general of
arts 359 [January 1982], pp. 58-59). Guangxi and Guangdong provinces requested that enam-
28. Such paintings are reproduced in Lunsingh Scheurleer els which were then being sent in great numbers to far-
1980, as are contemporary examples of blue-and-white away countries be painted with the imperial reign mark
porcelain with Dutch mounts. so they might redound to the prestige of the emperor's
29. The verses are by the poet Paul Scarron and are quoted reign. The request was sharply rejected, but the incident
by Henry Havard, Dictionnaire de I'ameublement (Paris, suggests a brisk export trade in enamels, which, at that
1892), vol. n, col. 836. date, must have been largely with Europe (see also Liu
30. Lane 1949-50. Liang-yu, Chinese Enamel Ware: Its History, Authentica-
31. The Splendor of Dresden: Five Centuries of Art Collect- tion, and Conservation [Taipei, 1978]).
ing, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978. 47. In the first half of Louis xiv's reign, familiarity with the
32. Even earlier than this, in 1664, Louis xiv had granted a silver furniture in the royal palaces and, to some extent,
patent to Claude Reverend to establish "une fabrique de in the private houses of the nobility must have made
porcelaine de Chine aupres de Paris," but nothing is the use of silver mounts for porcelain more acceptable
known of its productions. They are unlikely to have been than it was later.
3
of porcelain (Archives de art frangais, 14 vols. [Paris, 48. Julliot's shop in the fashionable rue Saint-Honore was
I
1851-60], vol. 6, p. 360). under the sign Aux curieux des Indes to indicate the
33. Quoted by L. Dussieux, Le chateau de Versailles, 2 vols. nature of the wares in which he dealt. The catalogue of
(Versailles, 1881), vol. i, p. 32. his stock in trade sold by auction after his death in 1777
f
34. A good description of the Trianon de Porcelaine is to be tells us that he specialized in 'porcelaines, anciennes,
found in H. Belevitch-Stankevitch, Le gout chinois en modernes, nouvelles du Japon, de la Chine, d'effets
3
France au temps de Louis xiv (1910, reprint, Geneva, d anciennes laques."
1970). R. Davis, La premiere maison royale de Trianon 49. Pierre Verlet, Le mobilier royal frangais, 4 vols. (Paris,
(Paris n.d.) is a rare work on the same subject. i945) 5 vol. i»PP- 6-7-
35. Jules Guiffrey, Inventaire general du mobilier de la cou- 50. Nicolas Trigault [1577-1628], The China That Was:
ronne sous Louis XIV, 2 vols. (Paris, 1885-86), vol. i, China as Discovered by the Jesuits at the Close of the
p. 32. Sixteenth Century, trans, from the Latin, Louis-Joseph
3 6. The most accessible account of the embassy, the events Gallagher (Milwaukee, 1942), p. xix.
leading up to its visit to France, and its consequences is 51. The Life and Times of Anthony a Wood, ed. Andrew
to be found in H. Belevitch-Stankevitch, Le gout chinois Clark (Oxford, 1891-1900), vol. 3, p. 36.
(1910/1970), pp. 10-48 and chap. n. The scene in 52. An even more curious, if frivolous, instance of the wish
which the "mandarins" in their curious conical hats pros- to interpret Christianity in Confucian terms, quoted by
trated themselves at the foot of the throne was sensational Hugh Honour (Chinoiserie: The Vision of Cathay [Lon-
and is recorded in several medals as well as in sculpture don, 1973]), was the binding by Mournier of a copy of
and engravings. the 1690 edition of De Imitatio Christi by Thomas a
37. General lists (not inventories) of the presents brought for Kempis. The entire surface of the morocco binding has
the king and his family are given in Alexandre Chaumont, been embossed with Old Testament figures dressed in
Relation de I'ambassade du Mr le chevalier de Chaumont Chinese costumes and surrounded by a landscape of
a la cour du roy de Siam (Paris, 1686) and are reprinted pagodas, dragons, and dromedaries.
by H. Belevitch-Stankevitch, Le gout chinois (1910/1970), 5 3. Something of the same sort, though on a much smaller
pp. 256-62. scale, arose over French attitudes to the Inca kingdom of
38. It passed briefly through the London auction rooms some Peru. Jean-Francois Marmontel in his novel Les Incas
years ago and has since vanished again. (1777) drew a eulogistic picture of the government of that
39. Monseigneur ordered special display cases built by Andre- country largely based on the highly tendentious account
Charles Boulle for his porcelain at Meudon. For his 1687 given in Garcilaso de la Vega's Commentarios reales que
almanac Gerard Jollain engraved a scene of the Enfants tratan del origin de los Incas (1609), a translation of
de France visiting Monseigneur's cabinet to inspect the which was published in Paris 1633. But as the Inca king-
presents of the Siamese. dom had been extinguished for some two hundred years,
40. Abrege des memoires du journal de Marquis de Dangeau it provided a much less forceful example than the still
(Paris, 1817), vol. i, p. 250. powerful empire of China.
41. Martin Lister, A Journey to Paris in the Year 1698 (Lon- 54. By curious chance, the first portrait of her future husband
don, 1699), pp. 37-38. that the Archduchess Marie-Antoinette saw before meet-
42. Diego Angulo Iniguez, Catdlogo de las alhajas del delfin ing the future Louis xvi in France showed him perform-
(Madrid, 1954). ing this ceremony. It is reproduced in Philippe Huisman

I N T R O D U C T I O N 19